Decide what to buy | the Reevoo.com blog, featuring news on TVs, cameras, laptops, mp3 players & other gadgets, shopping tips and deals, reviews and more

At Reevoo we’re about more than just reviews. We’re about the whole process of buying and enjoying something cool and new. With that in mind the three resident Category Managers, Jo, Sam and Jon have taken some time to lay out some helpful tips across three different product categories.

Reevoo Washing Machine Buyers Guide

Jo’s Washing Machine guide should help get you out of a spin and into the right shopping cycle with her top 5 tips designed to help you decide which washing machine is the right purchase for you.

For a full guide of the 5 tips, just click play below or check the video out as you shop on the Reevoo washing machine category page itself.

The Tips:

- Plumbing
- Dimensions, Loading and Appearance
- Capacity
- Usage
- Additional Features

The Video:

In the busy and sometimes confusing market of MP3 players Sam’s Top 5 purchasing Tips should be music to your ears:

The Tips:

- How Will I Use It?
- How Much Storage Do I Need?
- Do I Want To Watch Video?
- Watch Out For Battery Life
- Is An iPod the Best Option?

The Video:

For a full, step by step walkthrough of the above tips check out the video below or on the MP3 Player category page on Reevoo.com

Jon’s camera guide walks you through the features and settings that come into play when taking a photograph. The guide should help you decide what type of camera you want to snap up!

The Tips:

- The Sensor
- ISO Settings
- Megapixels
- Aperture
- Shutter Speed
- Exposure

The Video:

As with the other guides Jon’s can be seen on the Digital Camera Category page whilst looking through the compact and SLR camera reviews on Reevoo. If you don’t want to go anywhere just hit play below!

After some great feedback on our Reevoo iPhone app from Graham Charlton at ecounsultancy we jumped at the chance to act on some suggested improvements.

After a few hours of work we’re pleased to say that the Reevoo iPhone app now allows you to compare prices between various retailers!

So now, when you’re out on that spending spree, not only will your shopping choice be empowered by thousands of customer reviews at the touch of a button, you will also be able to see which stores stock the product and at what price!

As well as being able to compare retailers we made even further improvements.
After you’ve read reviews and seen the various retailer prices you can now choose to surf to the retailer store directly on your iPhone.

You can also choose to email yourself, or anyone else, a link of the Reevoo product page you are viewing. This way, if you’re browsing on the bus or wandering through a store, and want to take a bit more time before committing to a purchase, you can send yourself a reminder.

Installing the iPhone App
To add the updated Reevoo iPhone app to your home screen just unlock your iPhone and:

1. Open Safari
2. Navigate to http://www.reevoo.com/iphone
3. Tap the + button in Safari and choose ‘Add to Home Screen’

What’s left to do?
You’re probably now wondering if it could get any better, and we’re confident that it can, with your help.
We love customer reviews, so why not tell us what you think of our iPhone app. Give us good points and bad and one suggestion for an improvement you’d most like to see implemented. We’ll collect your opinions and implement the best idea.
Leave your review in the comments section of this post or email any of the category managers with your ideas to feedback@reevoo.com

If you’re all done with your Christmas shopping, you might be holding out for the sales so that you can grab some bargains. But instead of braving the crowds in search of that TV you’ve been after or that MP3 player that’s just a little too pricey at the moment, why not let us do the hard work?

If you have a particular product in mind, just find it on www.reevoo.com and click on the price drop alert to the right of the product or the one on top of the pricing table:

Then just enter your email address and click submit. It’s as easy as that.

If you’re still looking for Christmas gifts for your loved ones, take Reevoo with you to the shops so that you can make sure you’re spending your money on something good.

In our newsletter last month, we asked you all to let us know how the credit crunch was affecting your shopping. The results are in and amazingly, all of you had the same attitudes towards shopping and money saving:

If you’d like to subscribe to our newsletter, just go to the Reevoo homepage and put your email address in the box in the bottom right, then click “submit”:

It’s time for another installment in our What to buy series. We looked at What to buy Dads last week and this week it’s the turn of another tricky customer…the teenage boy.

If you need inspiration, just take a look at these:

For the music lover - Everyone loves music. Get them an MP3 player and they can take music with them wherever they go. The top rated MP3 player on Reevoo at the moment is the 8GB iPod Touch. It’s currently around £100. If you were looking to spend a little less than that, the second highest rated player is the £70 Sony NWZA816 4GB. And for a complete bargain buy, grab some CDs. Prices start from as little at £2.

For the gamer - Why not go for a games console like the PlayStation 3 (£289)? If they already have a console, they might like a gaming chair (£100). It’s comfortable for extended gaming sessions and you can feel the action through it. It can also be used to listen to music and watch films. There are also lots of console accessories, like this PS3 charging station for £15. For smaller gifts, you could go for a video game (prices start at £2).

For Mr Sociable - A mobile phone so that they can keep in contact with all their mates. For a phone packed full of features, how about the Nokia N95 or N96? Or for a more classy option, how about the Samsung Tocco or the new iPhone? (All phone prices vary according to contract)

For the sporty ones - Some tickets to a football or rugby match will make a great gift. For something more original, why not try this Garmin Forerunner 405 (£169) GPS-enabled sport watch, which tracks your training and sends the data to your computer or for trips to the coast this fishing starter kit (£32)?

For gadgety types - A Wind-Up Torch with Mobile Phone Charger (£7) or some travel speakers for your iPod (£9).

And for the boy that has everything? - Give them this Sonic Bomb Alarm Clock (£24) - guaranteed to wake the laziest of teenagers.

All done. Pretty painless, just as shopping should be.

If you’re purchasing online, follow our top tips for online shopping this Christmas.

There are only 49 days left until Christmas. That’s only 8 more weekends. If you’re the type of person that hates venturing into shops at Cristmas, save yourself some hassle and get your stuff online. Not only will youI be free from crowds and car parks but you’ll also save yourself some petrol.

There are a few things you should be careful of and watch out for when shopping online but follow our top tips and it should all be peachy:

Write a list - Write a list of the people you need to buy for and what you want to get them. This will not only ensure that you don’t forget anyone but you will then be able to work out what will be easy to buy online and what you will need to go into a store to buy. For example, a games console is a product that’s easy to choose online by reading reviews, whereas clothing is something that you might want to see and feel in-store.

Always read reviews - you wouldn’t buy a car without a test drive so why not read reviews from people that have test driven the product you’re about to buy? Reviews from people who have actually bought a product can give you a much better idea of what it will be like than journalist or ‘expert’ reviews - who might have only spent a few minutes looking at the product. And funnily enough, there’s over 400,000 real reviews from people like you and me on Reevoo : )

Read up about the retailer if you’re not familiar with the company - look for and check the phone number on the site so that you know you can get through to them if you have any problems. Also search for the company in a search engine to check other people’s experience with the company.

Check the returns policy - although reading reviews makes it less likely you’ll need to return products after Christmas, it’s worth checking out what it would entail if you had to return a gift to the retailer. You may have to pay a restocking fee or shipping costs or you may be able to return the item to a store.

Check all special offers - Christmas is the time all companies will be offering deals on their products but don’t just look at the product price when you’re comparing deals. Also check delivery costs, returns policies (see above) and make sure they are exactly the same products with all of the same features. Reevoo has prices from over a hundred retailers so it’s a good place to start, especially if you’re buying electricals.

Shop early and check delivery times - Companies will stock up on popular items before Christmas but it’s worth shopping as early as you can to avoid the “out of stock” nightmare. Also ensure that the company will be able to deliver your products in time for Christmas.

Payment and secure sites - Be safe online. Consumer Direct, the government-funded advisory service, recommends that before you enter any details into a seller’s site, make sure you can see the closed padlock in the status bar at the bottom of your browser. The web address should also change from http:// to shttp:// or https:// - this indicates a secure purchase. If you’re paying by credit card, this offers some security online from non-delivery and fraud although it’s usually only for transactions worth more than £100.  Offers are great ways to save some money but just beware of the ones that seem too good to be true, because they usually are. And if you don’t trust the company completely, it’s probably best if you don’t hand over your card details. Oh, and if you’re buying from an auction site such as ebay, be sure to use a service like PayPal which offers some purchase protection.

Ensure your computer is secure - you should have a firewall, anti-virus and anti-spyware software on your computer. Read more about how to make your computer secure on http://www.getsafeonline.org. Also make sure you turn your computer off after use to keep it safe from scammers and malicious software.

Keep records - Keep receipts and any email exchanges. Alsodo a print out of the product you are buying and ensure it includes the price and description of the product.

Now you know all that, happy online shopping!

www.reevoo.com/pink

If you’re a girl who needs everything to be pink; if you’re a guy who’s struggling to find a gift for his girlfriend or if you’re a man who just likes a bit of pink, it turns out you’re not alone.

Research by consumer review website, Reevoo.com, looked at how popular pink products were across its own website and those of its partners. Websites such as Dixons, The Carphone Warehouse and Currys were analysed to find out how pink products shaped up compared to their duller counterparts.

In the last 3 months, the pink JVC Everio GZ-MG330 camcorder has been one of the most popular models on the market and one of the most popular pink products.  One in twenty camcorder visits has been to look at this pink camcorder.

To continue the success of pink products, the pink Motorola ROKR U9 has been a great example to all pink mobile phones. Out of all 22,000 products, from TVs to MP3 players and washing machines, it was the 21st most popular product.

And it wasn’t just mobile phones bringing down the big guys, the Medion Celeron Processor Pink Laptop beat the mighty 17 inch MacBook Pro in the popularity stakes.

A Decide What to Buy favourite, Hetty, also did well to be the 16th most popular vacuum cleaner. There are over 375 vacuums so Hetty did pretty well.

You can see the top 10 pink products below, how popular they are in their categories and how popular they are compared to all the other 22,000 products.

Click on table above to enlarge.

To celebrate all this pinkness, Reevoo has created a page full of the pinkest products around. Fom pink MP3 players and pink laptops to pink irons and pink beanbags, they’re all there. You can find them at www.reevoo.com/pink.

Following on from our dodgy designs story last week, I came across more catastrophes in the MP3 department. The poor people that purchased a 2GB Matsui MAT120 definitely had a few negative things to say about their purchase.

From a massive 248 shoppers reviews on Reevoo, this MP3 player only receives an overall score of 5.3/10. Complaints seem to focus on the fact that the player deletes all of your songs on its own, its terrible battery life and how long the player actually lasted without breaking. Not good news here.

Although it seemed like a bargain – you can pick one up for around £25 - Paul from York pretty much sums up everybody else’s experience when he says “Doesn’t last more than a month. Bought 2 of these both did the same thing, after a month the memory goes, and you are unable to switch it on… You get what you pay for in the end”.

And just when I thought this was a one-off, I came across the 6GB Logik HDD60. This may have a higher score of 5.7/10 from 51 shoppers who bought it but it also had its fair share of negative comments. The biggest problems seemed to be that it’s pretty useless when you try to put music onto it – not great for an MP3 player - and that the battery life is also useless.

So if you want a MP3 player that works this summer, here’s two wasy to save you some money. If you want to find a quality MP3 player, make sure you read MP3 reviews first so that you can avoid the problems these poor shoppers had. At the moment, the top MP3 player is the 7GB Sony Walkman NWZA818. It has 49 reviews and a rating of 9.1/10.

In today’s what to buy, we’re looking at home offices. Whether you work from home or you just need an office at home, there’s no need to spend a fortune on some decent kit.

We’ve looked at laptops and desktop computers, shredders and fax machines and a lot more to help you furnish your office.

Let’s start off with computers. For those of you who prefer laptops, we’ve picked out the 15 inch Hewlett Packard 530. It’s got an 80GB hard drive, an Intel Celeron M 520 1.6 GHz processor and a DVD re-writer. You can pick one up for £267.97 with an increased 120GB hard drive. A bargain, I’m sure you’ll agree.

If you’re more of a desktop computer fan, you can try the Compaq SR5219. This has a 250GB hard drive, a AMD Athlon 64 X2 Processor and a DVD rewriter. It also comes with a 17inch Tft monitor and is around £360. It has some good reveiws too. Comments in the reviews include “Everything is spot on” and “very easy to set up, nice touch sensitive keyboard, looks smart”.

You’ll be needing a desk to house your bargains. Why not try the Dakota Workstation. It’s simple but stylish and most importantly, it’ll only set you back £20.

For a printer, we’ve gone for the £75 Epson Stylus DX8400. It doubles up as a scanner/copier so you can save some more money there. We’ve also gone for an Epson because you tend to get cheaper ink cartridges, so there’s the potential for long-term money saving. One shopper left this review “the product give me exactly what I was wanting at the right price”.

You can’t do much without the net these days so if you’ve been unfortunate enough to get an internet provider who doesn’t supply you with a router, you can get the 54 Mbps Belkin F5D7231UK4 for £44. It’s got a stonking 200 meter wireless range so you can work in the house or even in the garden (unless you live in a mansion/palace, in which case, I’d checkout your distances before you embark on any ’off-piste’ activities).

They’re not used much these days but if you do need a fax machine, the Brother T104 is £67.

So there we go, under £500 if you go with a laptop and just over £500 if you chose a desktop computer, although there may be other elements there that you don’t need.

Reviews for all of the items can be found on Reevoo, along with lots of other reviews from shoppers.

In today’s what to buy, we’re looking at home offices. Whether you work from home or you just need an office at home, there’s no need to spend a fortune on some decent kit.

We’ve looked at laptops and desktop computers, shredders and fax machines and a lot more to help you furnish your office.

Let’s start off with computers. For those of you who prefer laptops, we’ve picked out the 15 inch Hewlett Packard 530. It’s got an 80GB hard drive, an Intel Celeron M 520 1.6 GHz processor and a DVD re-writer. You can pick one up for £267.97 with an increased 120GB hard drive. A bargain, I’m sure you’ll agree.

If you’re more of a desktop computer fan, you can try the Compaq SR5219. This has a 250GB hard drive, a AMD Athlon 64 X2 Processor and a DVD rewriter. It also comes with a 17inch Tft monitor and is around £360. It has some good reveiws too. Comments in the reviews include "Everything is spot on" and "very easy to set up, nice touch sensitive keyboard, looks smart".

You’ll be needing a desk to house your bargains. Why not try the Dakota Workstation. It’s simple but stylish and most importantly, it’ll only set you back £20.

For a printer, we’ve gone for the £75 Epson Stylus DX8400. It doubles up as a scanner/copier so you can save some more money there. We’ve also gone for an Epson because you tend to get cheaper ink cartridges, so there’s the potential for long-term money saving. One shopper left this review "the product give me exactly what I was wanting at the right price".

You can’t do much without the net these days so if you’ve been unfortunate enough to get an internet provider who doesn’t supply you with a router, you can get the 54 Mbps Belkin F5D7231UK4 for £44. It’s got a stonking 200 meter wireless range so you can work in the house or even in the garden (unless you live in a mansion/palace, in which case, I’d checkout your distances before you embark on any ’off-piste’ activities).

They’re not used much these days but if you do need a fax machine, the Brother T104 is £67.

So there we go, under £500 if you go with a laptop and just over £500 if you chose a desktop computer, although there may be other elements there that you don’t need.

Reviews for all of the items can be found on Reevoo, along with lots of other reviews from shoppers.